The note of genuineness and spontaneity which marked the substance
of his speeches was no less conspicuous in their delivery. Nothing
could be more easy and graceful than his manner on ordinary
occasions. His expository discourses, such as those with which he
introduced a complicated bill or unfolded a financial statement,
were models of their kind, not only for lucidity, but for the
pleasant smoothness, equally free from monotony and from abruptness,
with which the stream of speech flowed from his lips. The task was
performed so well that people thought it an easy task till they saw
how immeasurably inferior were the performances of two subsequent
chancellors of the exchequer so able in their respective ways as Mr.
Lowe and Mr. Goschen. But when an occasion arrived which quickened
men's pulses, and particularly when some sudden storm burst on the
House of Commons, a place where the waves rise as fast as in a
mountain lake under a squall rushing down a glen, the vehemence of
his feeling found expression in the fire of his eye and the
resistless strength of his words. His utterance did not grow
swifter, nor did the key of his voice rise, as passion raises and
sharpens it in most men. But the measured force with which every
sentence was launched, like a shell hurtling through the air, the
concentrated intensity of his look, as he defied antagonists in
front and swept his glance over the ranks of his supporters around
and behind him, had a startling and thrilling power which no other
Englishman could exert, and which no Englishman had exerted since
the days of Pitt and Fox. The whole proud, bold, ardent nature of
the man seemed to flash out, and one almost forgot what the lips
said in admiration of the towering personality.

People who read next day the report in the newspapers of a speech
delivered on such an occasion could not comprehend the impression it